ver's Barrows, without downright cruelty: and
though there would be a harvest-moon, Ruth agreed with me that I must
not keep my mother waiting, with no idea where I might be, until a
late hour of the night. I told Ruth all about our Annie, and her noble
furniture; and the little maid was very lively (although her wounds were
paining her so, that half her laughter came "on the wrong side of her
mouth," as we rather coarsely express it); especially she laughed about
Annie's new-fangled closet for clothes, or standing-press, as she called
it. This had frightened me so that I would not come without my stick to
look at it; for the front was inlaid with two fiery dragons, and a glass
which distorted everything, making even Annie look hideous; and when it
was opened, a woman's skeleton, all in white, revealed itself, in the
midst of three standing women. "It is only to keep my best frocks in
shape," Annie had explained to me; "hanging them up does ruin them so.
But I own that I was afraid of it, John, until I had got all my best
clothes there, and then I became very fond of it. But even now it
frightens me sometimes in the moonlight."

Having made poor Ruth a little cheerful, with a full account of all
Annie's frocks, material, pattern, and fashion (of which I had taken a
list for my mother, and for Lizzie, lest they should cry out at man's
stupidity about anything of real interest), I proceeded to tell her
about my own troubles, and the sudden departure of Lorna; concluding
with all the show of indifference which my pride could muster, that
now I never should see her again, and must do my best to forget her, as
being so far above me. I had not intended to speak of this, but Ruth's
face was so kind and earnest, that I could not stop myself.

"You must not talk like that, Cousin Ridd," she said, in a low and
gentle tone, and turning away her eyes from me; "no lady can be above
a man, who is pure, and brave, and gentle. And if her heart be worth
having, she will never let you give her up, for her grandeur, and her
nobility."

She pronounced those last few words, as I thought, with a little
bitterness, unperceived by herself perhaps, for it was not in her
appearance. But I, attaching great importance to a maiden's opinion
about a maiden (because she might judge from experience), would have led
her further into that subject. But she declined to follow, having now no
more to say in a matter so removed from her. Then I asked her f